ROTG One-Shot Collection
by towardsxthexsun
Summary: A collection of one-shots in the ROTG universe. Focus is on Jack Frost but the other characters will also have their time to shine. Largely hurt/comfort and family. Accepting prompts. Please read the AN.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Wow, kinda can't believe I'm back writing ROTG fanfic! So, back in 2012/2013 I wrote an ROTG One-Shot Collection on my old account (username is in my bio), but eventually fell out of the fandom. I'm back now and was looking through those chapters and decided to rewrite some of them AND write new chapters. I feel like my writing has improved since then (I would certainly hope it did, given I was a middle-schooler back then) and wanted to do something similar to how artists redraw something they drew years ago. So anyone who's read my original One-Shot Collection will find some chapters familiar, but as I said I'll be writing new ones too.**

**I don't know how often I'll update, I'm hoping to update frequently but I am a college student so life is hectic. I already have an idea for which stories I'll be writing, both with rewritten ones and new ones.**

**Anyway, this is a rewrite of the first chapter in my original fanfic.**

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own Rise of the Guardians.**

* * *

It had been a couple months since they had defeated Pitch. With the lights glowing once again all over the globe, life had settled back down to normal, though with a few notable exceptions. The inclusion of one Jack Frost had led to the Guardians talking to each other more, actually meeting up at least every other week instead of staying locked away in their own places as they had before. And they were actually interacting with the children again, Tooth especially who had gone back to "being in the field" some nights.

The changes made North's heart swell. He hadn't realized how distant they had become, both from each other and from the children they were meant to be protecting. North was eternally grateful for the changes and realizations Jack Frost had brought with him.

* * *

That day North was working on a train. It was a basic toy, one most would assume had been perfected decades ago, but North was a tinkerer and the Guardian of Wonder and there was always something you could do to a toy to make it even better. Christmas was still months off, but that didn't mean he didn't have work to do. All it did mean was that he could leave most tasks to the yetis and work on more specific tasks himself, at least till it hit November and then he would be more hands-on.

He was so focused on the train he didn't notice Jack slip into the room (though, in North's defense, Jack had somehow mastered the art of moving quietly when he wanted to, something on one would ever have guessed given how talkative and loud he usually was).

"Hey, what'cha doing?"

North startled, something he would never admit to, and began to pull out his swords as he spun around. Their fight with Pitch hadn't been long ago to release the on-edge feeling, and while Pitch likely wouldn't be back for at least a few years (likely more, he'd had his butt kicked rather hard if North said so himself) in that moment emotion superseded logic.

The swords hadn't fully made their way out of the scabbards when North's brain finally caught up to his instincts. The winter spirit seemed surprised at North's actions, eyes wide and the hand not holding his staff raised a bit as if he'd hoped to ward off a sword with his bare hands. The moment North released his swords, though, the expression was wiped off Jack's face and his hand dropped, instead moving to wrap around his staff as he leaned against it.

North felt sick. He'd had the same expression as on Easter, when Bunny had nearly struck him. They'd apologized for the mess at Easter, it had been unfair and cruel of them to assume Jack had joined forces with Pitch and to blame him for Easter being ruined. He'd wondered if Jack was still upset with them, which North doubted any Guardian would blame him for, but now he wondered if there was a second issue. Because there was something in Jack's expression that screamed he was used to this, that he expected to be hurt.

North didn't have time to consider that, though, as Jack spoke up, a crooked smile plastered on his face. "Do you normally point swords at people who sneak into the Pole? Maybe I should be glad I never got past the Yetis," his voice was light, joking, but there was something in his stance that made North believe he was also ready to bolt at the slightest sign of trouble, no matter how casual he was trying to appear.

There were clearly many, many things he had to talk to Jack Frost about, probably sooner rather than later, but now didn't seem the time. So instead North smiled brightly, chuckling a bit. "No, no. Merely wasn't expecting you. What bring you to Workshop?"

Jack let out a huff of air, face twisting in annoyance. "It's too hot. All the Summer Spirits are coming out now." North nodded in understanding. He didn't know a lot about the weather spirits, but he did know winter spirits were usually impossible to find during the summer as they went into hiding and hibernation. He also knew Jack couldn't stand the heat. When the Guardians gathered now, he had to make sure the fire wasn't too hot else Jack would end up sitting in a corner far away from them. The Yetis had also had to learn how to make iced chocolate instead of hot chocolate for him.

"Usually I just go bury myself in Antarctica till it gets colder," Jack continued, waving a hand around as he spoke. North chuckled, imagining Jack bundled up in snow as if it were a blanket. "But I was wondering-" Jack briefly looked away from North, staring at the ground as he bit his lip before finishing. "If I could maybe stay here? If not that's cool, there's some pretty good snowbanks in Antarctica and they've been good enough before so-"

"Jack!" North interrupted, shaking his head as he laughed and placed both hands on Jack's shoulders. Jack's eyes darted back up to him and North could feel the tension in his shoulders, but he didn't let his smile drop. "Of course you may stay! Workshop for all Guardians! And am sure the elves will be happy. Yeti too if you distract elves." The elves were always getting underfoot and North was certain the Yeti would practically worship Jack if he managed to keep the elves away, even for a little bit.

The hesitant look on Jack's face disappeared, replaced with a smirk. "I could always freeze them till after Christmas."

North's laughter grew as he clapped Jack on the shoulders again, before ushering him out of the office. "Maybe not that long. But come, I show you your room."

* * *

The next month was... interesting, different. While the Guardians had already begun interacting more, Jack being at the North Pole and extremely unwilling to leave it ("I'll melt out there!") had led to the other Guardians visiting as well. None admitted to that being the reason, but it wasn't difficult to deduce. They truly were becoming their own little family, something North was sure they all appreciated. None of them had other family now. The Golden Age Sandy had been born during had ended centuries ago, Tooth had lost her family, Bunny was the last Pooka, North had grown up without a family. And Jack, Jack had died and his family had passed on long ago. It was something Jack had told them off soon after the battle with Pitch, though he hadn't elaborated on any of it. Simply mentioned he'd become a Guardian because he'd died saving his sister and that was it, after that he'd clammed up.

They had all gone through terrible things before becoming a Guardian, but none of them had died. None of them had been children and none of them had had it forced on them, they'd all been given the choice by Manny to become Guardians. It had been a shock, to say the least, to find out that Jack had died and never had the choice.

Perhaps North should talk to him about that as well. Finding out you had died couldn't be easy, even if Jack acted like nothing was wrong. The list of things to talk to Jack about seemed to be ever growing, but North knew not how to actually broach the topics without making Jack flee. Maybe Sandy would have ideas, he seemed to understand Jack better than the rest of them most of the time.

North winced at the sound of an explosion coming from another room, sighing. It wasn't a room where they made toys, thankfully, but that left only one other reason for an explosion. Bunny was visiting today and while he and Jack did get along better, they still fought sometimes. They were friends, there were no more comments meant to bite and hurt, but the two Guardians could rarely spend more than a couple hours in each other's presence without something happening.

North walked to the room the noise had come from, and where raised voices could now be heard. He raised an eyebrow as he walked through the door, taking in the sight. Splotches of Bunny's fur had frost on them, while other spots were wet and dripping seemingly from melted ice. Jack meanwhile had clearly been hit by one of Bunny's exploding eggs, leaving him with soot on his face and hair and… was that chocolate?

They hadn't noticed North's arrival, not till he cleared his throat and clapped his hands and glared at them into silence. Neither looked especially happy at the interruption, though the look on both face's reminded North more of children being caught up past their bedtime or taking cookies before dinner. In other words, they were embarrassed enough at being caught to stop arguing.

"Stop fighting. If you wish to continue, do it not at Workshop." A devious grin split North's face. "I can always drop off in a desert." Bunny's eyes narrowed dangerously, ears flattening against his head while Jack's eyes widened. Bunny did alright in heat, but had never been a fan of deserts (or all the sand getting into his fur and his eggs) and thus disliked the idea nearly as much as Jack.

"You wouldn't," Bunny tested, eyes still narrowed. North just shrugged, smile still on his face and saying nothing. Let Bunny come to the conclusion of whether he would live up to the threat or not.

"No more fighting, we'll be good," Jack said, Bunny grunting his agreement while Jack tried for the "I'm entirely innocent" expression which didn't work very well when North knew he'd been on the naughty list for decades.

Still, North nodded and gestured for the two Guardians to follow him. "Good, if no more fighting we can have Yetis make hot chocolate - and iced chocolate - and I show some new toys." Bunny looked less than enthused about that, already muttering about how Christmas was overrated compared to Easter, but Jack looked excited, eyes practically sparkling. Even after a month in the Workshop, he seemed just as full of wonder as North was.

And even though he was uninterested, Bunny came along anyway, his mutterings quieting down as he looked at Jack and saw the winter spirit's enthusiasm. It made North's smile grow larger. They didn't always get along, they were still learning how to interact with each other, but the Guardians slowly yet surely were becoming a family.

* * *

**A/N: I hope you liked this! I'm not sure I'm writing North's dialogue/voice accurately, if anyone has tips or critiques on that I'd be most appreciative. I'm sorry if this felt a little stilted, it's my first time in a while writing a fic that's more than a drabble.**

**Since I am writing new chapters, I'm open to prompts. My only rules are: no romance, no gender-bending, nothing above a T-rating.**

**As always, reviews and constructive criticism are appreciated!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** Thank you all so much for the views, reviews, and fav/follows. They mean so much to me! To my American readers, hope you had a good Thanksgiving. To my non-American or non-Thanksgiving celebrating readers, hope you had a good Thursday. This is a new story from a prompt from one of those old ROTG prompt pages. Not sure how I feel about the ending but hopefully you all will enjoy it!

* * *

The main job of the Yeti were to make toys, while simultaneously pretending that the elves were helping and trying to keep them from breaking any of the toys. Their second duty was to protect the North Pole. While all Yetis helped and were ready to defend it if attacked, most of that duty fell to Phil who was something of a leader among the Yeti. Or, at least, North gave most of the tasks to Phil and expected Phil to keep an eye on the Workshop while North worked on newer toys that would bring even more wonder.

Point being, it was Phil's duty to protect the Pole and he took it very seriously. So he was less than amused when he saw an unknown person drifting down from the rafters, eyes darting around as he took in the Workshop. Phil took a moment to look him over - teenager, white hair, where he'd touched the ground there was frost forming, a winter spirit? - before marching over and grabbing the boy by his cloak.

"Hey-!"

No one was allowed inside the Pole unauthorized. For all Phil knew, this spirit could be scouting for weaknesses and information. He also could just be trying to change his name on the list, since even spirits were listed on it. Either way, he wasn't supposed to be here. The boy struggled, trying to whack Phil with the staff in his hands, but Phil was a Yeti and Yeti's were large so it was rather simple to drag him to the entrance of the Workshop.

He slammed open the door and unceremoniously tossed the spirit into the snow, stumbling as he gained his footing before spinning around. "I was just-"

Phil grumbled, interrupting the spirit and pointing in the opposite direction from the Pole. He narrowed his eyes, glaring for a moment, before walking back inside and slamming the door behind him. Phil did not have time for this.

* * *

Unfortunately, in Phil's opinion, that wasn't the last time he saw the spirit, who he eventually learned was Jack Frost. That would certainly explain the ice he left around.

After their first encounter, Frost seemed to be making a point of trying to break into the North Pole. Every week Phil would find the winter spirit in the Workshop, hiding in corners or up in the rafters and a few times convincing the elves to make him cookies. Phil had lectured the elves after that. Sometimes he wished they could just give the elves to Bunnymund. Surely the Easter Bunny could use them.

Frost's break-ins always ended the same way, with Phil grabbing him by his cloak and tossing him out of the workshop while grumbling about how much time this was taking away from the toy-making.

After around two months of that, Frost's break-in attempts lessened but didn't end. Even one break-in every few months was more than Phil wanted to deal with, yet the winter spirit either didn't get that he wasn't allowed in the Pole (unlikely) or thought it was hilarious to make Phil's day even harder.

The result was that Phil was nowhere near a fan of Jack Frost. So when he saw Frost in the North Pole, again, Phil threw up his arms and loudly chided the spirit out as he grabbed his arm, lugging him back towards the entrance. It was only after the fact - quite a bit after the fact, a few days actually - that Phil realized Frost hadn't even been trying to hide from the Yeti.

Usually he at least made an attempt to be secretive, hiding in nooks and crannies, and a few times he had tried to outrun Phil. The ice he sometimes left behind and the mess the Wind always left behind meant he never could hide from them, but there was an attempt. But this time, Frost had casually dropped down from the rafters to inspect a belt of toys. He hadn't been trying to hide.

Phil wasn't quite sure what to do with that information - if breaking into the Pole was a game, getting caught so easily didn't make sense, and if he was trying to find the Pole's secrets standing in the middle of the toy making area also didn't make sense - but he had more important things to do than figure out the workings of Jack Frost's mind.

* * *

The next time, Jack came to Phil. Phil was carrying wrapping paper to one of the departments when Jack dropped down in front of him, hanging upside down and grinning widely at the Yeti. "Hey, Phil!"

Phil bared his teeth in a growl, dropping the wrapping paper down on a nearby table before pointing an accusing finger at Jack. Jack didn't seem worried or disappointed, didn't even try to run or avoid Phil as the Yeti grabbed him. Instead he just kept talking, asking how Christmas went ("I saw the sleigh and reindeer but I was too busy freezing the Great Lakes to introduce myself.") and why were they still working when Christmas had _just_ happened.

Phil frowned, raising an eyebrow at the winter spirit. Usually he grumbled about being thrown out and how he was just looking around. He'd never tried to hold a conversation with the Yeti. Phil shook his head, not answering Jack's questions before pushing him out of the Workshop and closing the door behind him.

* * *

By now, Phil was rather certain that Jack wasn't someone who wanted to destroy the Pole or was trying to put his name on the Nice List (he'd never been found near where they keep the lists and in the decades since Phil had known of him, his name had always been on the Naughty List - the constant North Pole break-ins had a big part to do with that). He wasn't even trying to avoid the Yetis anymore, more often than not seemingly purposefully showing up around Phil or other Yetis and trying to strike up a conversation before they threw him out.

At some point Phil became a _little_ more welcoming of Jack, though he had never consciously decided to do that and he would still glare at Jack and angrily tell him to stop breaking in.

Phil did sometimes grumble out answers to Jack's questions, though. The spirit didn't understand Yeti language, but that didn't stop him from asking more questions or replying as if he did understand (the replies never made sense with what Phil just said, always leading to Phil rolling his eyes at the spirit).

Phil didn't know much about other spirits, especially non-Guardians, but he knew a bit. He knew that Bunnymund hated the Groundhog because the Groundhog could push back the start of spring. He knew weather and seasonal spirits didn't get along well with their opposites. He knew Cupid and the Leprechaun were friends, somehow.

He knew that Jack Frost wasn't believed in.

Which would explain the constant break-ins and conversations. The Yetis saw him.

Phil couldn't, and wouldn't, let him walk around in the Workshop. He wasn't allowed there, those were the rules and those rules were important. They were there to protect the Workshop and thus the Wonder of all children.

He did start dragging Jack out the long way, letting him get a look at different areas of the Workshop. If he saw Jack on the perimeter, or looking into the Workshop through a window, he didn't bother chasing the winter spirit away. He rolled his eyes and grumbled and shook a finger in Jack's face, though with less anger and more annoyance and "this is routine now more than anything else."

And though Phil glared at Jack and pressed a fist to his palm when he saw the winter spirit walking around the Workshop with North, it wasn't serious. Jack himself knew that, shooting a grin at Phil as he greeted the Yeti before following North further in.

Phil figured he'd have more work if Jack took the Guardian's Oath. He'd be allowed in the Pole and Phil could just imagine the amount of chaos the spirit could get up to when he didn't have to worry about being thrown out. There'd be frost everywhere, the Wind blowing things over, a total mess.

Phil would grumble about it like always, but he didn't really mind. Not that much, anyway.

* * *

**A/N:** Would you guys like me to add chapter titles (they'd probably be very simple, since I'm bad at titles) and one-sentence blurbs at the beginning of the chapters? Hopefully I'll get another chapter out within 2 weeks - if the weather forecast is right and we get hit by 8 inches of snow I'll definitely be doing some writing.

As always, constructive criticism is appreciated!


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** Happy late holidays! Sorry for the super late update. College got super busy, then I got sick, then it was the holidays. If it helps, I've at least started working on a fourth chapter There are notes at the end, including information about the summer spirit in this chapter since I just took him from Greek myth.

**Summary:** Jack gets into a fight with a summer spirit and has to wait for someone to save him.

* * *

_Next time I see Notus, I'm freezing him solid_, Jack thought to himself, wincing as he pushed himself up onto his hands and knees. His entire body ached from slamming into the ground and even with how quickly spirits healed he knew he'd be feeling it for a couple days. He could deal with that, except there were also a few burn marks splattered across his body, sweatshirt singed and blackened where Notus had hit him. Being a winter spirit, those would take far longer to heal than simple bruises.

But Jack was almost used to this by now. It wasn't the first time a summer spirit had attacked him. There was a type of territoriality between the summer and winter spirits. It didn't matter that clearly Father Winter had declared winter in a certain spot, or that Gaea announced the beginning of summer, they fought anyway. Jack tended to stay out of it - unless the other spirits forcefully dragged him in.

Jack should've known he was asking for trouble going to Greece, but he'd felt the silent urging from Father Winter that meant winter needed to be brought there and he'd flown off without a second thought. Notus considered Greece his territory and while usually he didn't cause problems (or Jack got in and out way too quickly for Notus to cause any problems), today had clearly been one of those days where he did cause problems.

Jack wasn't looking forward to explaining this to the Guardians. They were due to have a meeting that night and based on the throbbing of his cheek, he was pretty sure he had a decent sized bruise there that they'd all be able to see. The Guardians had been around for a long time and in a lot of areas knew more than Jack, but they seemed completely oblivious to what was going on with other spirits (and especially the seasonal spirits who often hibernated and avoided others - Jack tended to stand out among the spirits in this way, having always been trying to get attention from other spirits even when failing). Explaining the bruise would already suck, explaining how the winter and summer spirits often got into fights at the turn of the seasons would be even worse. Because really, he had no better explanation and Tooth and Sandy, at the very least, would want one.

Of course, none of that would matter if he melted from the heat. Pushing himself up to his feet, Jack wiped a hand across his brow. He was already starting to sweat. Because where else would Notus drop him except some place hot. He'd lost track of where they were during the fight, trying to use the wind to out-run the summer spirit. All it had succeeded in was landing him on an extremely hot island because apparently Notus was smart enough (and Jack oblivious enough) to herd him away from the cold.

Yeah, Notus was getting frozen solid next time they met.

"Okay, where are you?" Jack muttered under his breath, looking around for his staff. He could only control the wind with his staff, and during the fight Notus had managed to knock it out of his hand, leading to the fall. It couldn't have gotten far though. He'd seen his staff while falling and it had been just barely out of arm's reach.

Except now, looking all around and walking a few feet in every which direction, he couldn't find it anywhere. "So it fell a little farther than I thought. It's still around here somewhere," Jack said to himself, stamping down the tendrils of panic that were beginning to bloom in his chest.

He kept searching, walking in a circle and slowly expanding out so he wouldn't miss it. But after another half hour, and with his sweatshirt clinging to his skin and hair clinging to his face and wondering who decided the sun was a good idea, there was still no sign of his staff.

He stopped the search, standing underneath a tree and looking once more around him. "Where can it be? It couldn't have fallen that far away. Unless-" Jack's eyes widened. No. Sure summer spirits hated winter spirits, but surely Notus wouldn't have stolen his staff?

Oh who was he kidding, Notus had totally stolen his staff. And now the panic that Jack had been trying to reason away came back full force and no amount of trying to reason or hope could stop it. Because without his staff, he was _stuck_ here. He already felt like he was melting and was quickly running out of energy, wanting nothing more than to stay sitting on the ground. He wasn't entirely sure if he could die from the heat - hot things certainly weren't healthy for winter spirits but he was also technically dead already, could he die twice? He'd never heard of a seasonal spirit dying, sometimes they just faded away or had to hibernate whether because of the weather changing or to heal themselves but as far as he knew none had died from the heat.

That was at least slightly comforting, that he likely wouldn't die here. Didn't make it any better that he likely would end up hibernating in a snowbank for the next couple weeks - if he got off this island. That was the real problem, because the only way off without his staff was to wait and hope the Guardians found him. They'd realize something was wrong when he didn't show up to the meeting (he was actually strangely punctual to these, despite what everyone else likely had thought). Between North's snowglobes and sleigh, Bunny's tunnels, and Tooth's mini fairies it couldn't take that long to find him once they realized he was missing.

So Jack sat down at the base of a tree, trying to take advantage of the flimsy shade the leaves provided. He pulled his sweatshirt over his head, grimacing slightly. Underneath was his old shirt, the one he'd been wearing when he'd saved his sister and then been brought back. It was ratty and falling apart, but he'd neve been able to get rid of it. Besides, with his sweatshirt no one ever saw it anyway. He briefly considered taking it off too in an attempt to cool down even more, but he doubted it was containing much heat to begin with and when a Guardian found him he'd rather they not see just how thin he was.

He leaned his head back against the tree trunk, humming slightly in an attempt to keep himself awake. If he fell asleep now, he might just end up hibernating and hibernating in the heat was definitely not a good idea. When he ran out of tunes to hum, he started thinking of pranks he could pull on Bunny. Eventually he ran out of prank ideas too. His brain was sluggishly slow and his skin was burning from the heat. He was pretty sure he'd stopped sweating a couple minutes ago which couldn't be good.

It was so hard to think in the heat that Jack only noticed the slight shaking under the ground _after _the earth caved in a few yards away from him and a Pooka jumped out. Jack's vision had become blurry and nothing was connecting with his brain, but he was fairly certain he managed some witty quip as Bunnymund came towards him. Something about "aww, was the kangaroo worried about me?" because Bunnymund did look worried which wasn't an expression Jack was used to seeing on the Pooka's face and joking about it made it a little less worrisome.

He was distantly aware of Bunnymund picking him up, tapping his foot on the ground, and then they were sliding down one of his tunnels. He didn't remember closing his eyes but next thing he knew he was at the Workshop, Baby Tooth fluttering worriedly above his head and ice being packed around him. He tried to open his mouth, to warn them that he would need to hibernate because they likely had no clue that's how elemental spirits often healed themselves, but the warmth of sleep drew him back before he could.

* * *

It was a week later that Jack woke up, not that he knew that right away. He wasn't packed in ice like he'd been when he'd fallen into hibernation, which was fine because the North Pole wasn't blisteringly hot and North had made his room especially cold compared to the rest of the Workshop. There was however still a Baby Tooth flying around him and some rather worried Guardians.

The ensuing conversation was exactly what he'd been dreading. Except it was made even worse because apparently the Guardians had figured out at least part of what had happened, demonstrated by presenting him with his staff and asking who had attacked him because Jack those are clearly bruises on your face and your staff was halfway across the world from you yes someone attacked you.

Jack grimaced, doing his best to avoid giving a straight answer until Sandy put his nose right up against Jack's with a look that meant trouble if Jack didn't answer. So he explained the entire deal with winter and summer spirits and how Notus had attacked him and how he was definitely getting frozen next time Jack had to go to Greece. Talking down the Guardian was the actual hard part, with all of them looking ready to go after Notus themselves.

"Listen, guys, while I'm glad you want to help me, I don't need your help. It's just how things work with seasonal spirits. It's not a big deal." North looked ready to argue at that comment, but instead a shared look between the Guardians quieted him.

"Okay, second question. You were out for a week, mate, but your temp stabilized days ago. What was that about?" Bunny asked, ear flickering slightly.

"Oh, seasonal spirits hibernate. We need to hibernate every couple years, but if we're hurt or just don't want to deal with the opposite season then we also hibernate. They take a while," Jack explained, smirking a bit at the shared look of confusion among the Guardians. They really needed a 101 course on seasonal spirits, but that would have to wait for another day as Jack yawned. Despite sleeping for the last week, he still wasn't completely up to stuff. If this had been a regular hibernation he'd have been jumping all over the place already, but healing hibernations often left him exhausted after waking up.

The Guardians, of course, noticed and started making their way out so he could sleep, but not before Tooth gave him a quick hug followed by Baby Tooth hugging his nose. North clapped a hand on his shoulder, saying in a loud jolly voice how good it was that Jack was back and alright. Before Sandy could send him dream sand, Jack snagged Bunny's wrist.

"Thanks, for finding me," Jack said, his voice low. A few months ago he would've never expected that Bunny of all people would save him, he'd have more expected the Guardian to simply leave him on that island if he'd even noticed Jack in the first place. They still had issues, scars left over from being ignored for 300 years and Jack was still a bit guarded around them, as if waiting for the other shoe to drop and to be shoved away again. But the scars were beginning to fade and despite how terrible this entire experience had been, the Guardians felt a bit more like a second family to him.

Bunny looked back at him, a small smile on his face even if he seemed confused and uncomfortable with the gratitude. "No problem, mate. Can't let you go and melt on us, can I?" Jack chuckled as he let go of Bunny's wrist and the Pooka left. He laid his head back down on the pillow just as dreamsand floated over, the last thing he saw being golden dolphins jumping above him.

* * *

**A/N:** Not sure how I feel about the second half but hope y'all liked it! I really need to start adding in more dialogue but my writing style lately has been very... floaty I guess? I've got some ideas in mind that will involve more dialogue though. Also I wrote the first half like weeks ago and the second half recently so if something doesn't make sense or seems contradictory just let me know and I'll fix it.

Notus is the Greek god of the South Wind and was associated with really hot winds and destroying crops (and storms but we're gonna ignore that). I didn't want to come up with my own summer spirit because I'm bad at coming up with names but figures like Apollo and Helios just felt weird in this situation?

A lot of fics I've read have mentioned Jack hibernating and the winter and summer spirits feuding with each other so those aren't my original ideas. I also headcanon that Jack talks to himself a lot given that no one could see him for 300 years (which is, kinda canon? since he talks to the kids even though they can't see him).

If anyone's curious, North doesn't say anything because the Guardians are intending to have a private conversation about "it's just how things work" and also feel really guilty at the idea that Jack's been dealing with this for 300 years.

As always, reviews/follows/favs are appreciated and constructive criticism more than welcome!


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